


Skip Day

by csi_sanders1129



Category: Bully (Video Games)
Genre: Dates, Ficuary, First Kiss, M/M, Oblivious, School, Snow, Winter, break - Freeform, challenge, movies - Freeform, skip day, tradition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:47:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29233290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/csi_sanders1129/pseuds/csi_sanders1129
Summary: In which no one is going to class and Jimmy makes sure that includes Petey.
Relationships: Jimmy Hopkins/Peter "Petey" Kowalski
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: Ficuary





	Skip Day

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ficuary 2021, Prompt: Tradition. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

"Where are you going?" Jimmy calls out, as Pete walks by his door. It's the last day of classes for the semester – some kids are going home for winter break, some of them are not. But, still, almost none of them are going to class.

"History?" Pete offers, as if that should be obvious, as if they haven't spent every Friday morning this semester groaning at Mr. Wiggins as he drones on and on.

Jimmy shakes his head, pulls on his jacket and grabs up his backpack that is absolutely not filled with textbooks. "I don't think so, buddy. It's tradition. No class today, not for you, not for me, not for anyone with half a brain in this place. We're skipping."

"But-" Pete tries to protest, but Jimmy's already got an arm slung around his shoulder, walking with him.

"Live a little," Jimmy urges, steering them away from the school and toward the campus exit, carefully sneaking by anyone who might be willing to narc on them to the prefects or the teachers. Pete follows, stands by while Jimmy grabs his bike from where he keeps it safely stashed and rides double with Jimmy as they head into town. "What do you want to do first?"

Pete, to his credit, does not mention that he would very much like to turn in his extra credit assignment and opts to give in. Not like he needs the extra credit anyway. "The movies?" he suggests, there had been some new film coming out that he'd been wanting to see and a darkened movie theater seems like a good place to avoid anyone who might care that they're truant.

"Perfect," Jimmy agrees, changing direction to head toward the theater in Old Bullworth Vale as a light snow begins to fall. The two of them join the line for tickets to find several familiar faces ahead of them. Derby, Bif, Parker, and Justin are all there, chatting about their holiday plans and what extravagant vacations their families always take. They offer reasonably amicable greetings to Jimmy and, as usual, don't acknowledge Pete's existence. Parker invites Jimmy to join them for a boxing match tonight, but Jimmy turns down the offer.

When they reach the front of the line, Jimmy waves off Pete's money and pays for both tickets, insisting that since he dragged Pete with him, the least he can do is pay. They find seats and settle in and Pete finds that he doesn't worry about the classes he's skipping for a solid hour and half. The movie isn't as good as he expected it to be (is it ever?) and he and Jimmy are still talking about it when they leave the theater to find considerably more snow on the ground than there had been when they'd headed in.

A few of the bullies rush by, clearly in what is a massive snowball fight mostly targeting the few unfortunate nerds that happened upon them. Trent pauses in front of them, "Hopkins! C'mon, join in! Algie started it!"

But Jimmy waves him off, carefully nudges Pete out of the way of an incoming snowball and leads them away from the heart of the battle.

"I'm starving. How about we grab some lunch?" he offers, cutting through one of the alleyways to come upon the local burger place. Pete complies with that plan, too. Minutes later, he's sliding into a seat across from Jimmy as a waitress approaches with menus. They both opt for simple cheeseburger and fry meals, coupled with the milkshakes that are inexplicably better than the ones from the ice cream place a few streets over.

"I thought you'd want to join in on the snowball fight," Pete comments, while they wait for their food.

Jimmy shrugs, "Eh, wasn't in the mood. Plus, sooner or later, I would have gotten bored and started throwing snowballs at the bullies instead and that's an all day battle I didn't really feel like having."

"That's fair," Pete concedes, sure that that's definitely would have happened. Really, he's just glad they weren't after him for once. It's a rarity these days, even rarer if he's with Jimmy, but every once in a while someone gets brave enough, or stupid enough, to try something.

Their food comes, hot and greasy and well, edible, and they promptly devour it. They watch the snowfall pick up through the plate glass windows, steadily accumulating as the sky darkens with more clouds. By the time Jimmy pays the bill (again, despite Pete's attempts to get to it first), it's practically a blizzard.

"Now what?"

"We can wait it out at the lighthouse," Jimmy suggests since they're quite close by. "Hopefully it'll let up soon."

So the two of them hurry across the street to the beach, slogging through the thick layer of snow atop the sand to the pier where the beach house sits. Jimmy kicks aside enough snow to get the door open and herds Pete inside. The house is cold, but Jimmy's quick to turn on the space heater he has set up in the corner of the large room.

"Should be warm in no time," he says, shedding his gloves and his hat.

Pete does the same, glad for his warm coat until then.

They take turns playing rounds of Future Street Race 3D where Pete manages to claim and hold the high score. When they get bored of that, they watch some syndicated show on television, sprawled casually across the old, beat-up couch.

By then, it's nearly dark out.

Jimmy opens one of the doors off the beach house's main room, revealing a spiral staircase up to the top of the lighthouse. Pete follows him up and the two of them stare out at the ocean as the snow falls harder and harder. It does not seem like it's going to stop anytime soon. The streets are nearly vacant of both cars and pedestrians, and there's that weird silence that always falls when the snow comes down, all the normal noises muffled.

"You think we can get back to campus?"

"The bus looks like it's still running," Jimmy observes, looking now out toward Old Bullworth Vale instead, where he can spot the approaching lights of the bus slowly approaching the nearby stop. "You can go back if you want to, but I'm gonna crash here for the night," he says, then with a shrug that would, if Pete didn't know him as well as he does, suggest indifference, adds "or you could stay."

Pete fights off the part of himself that wants to follow the rules, that wants to be back in his room, in his bed, by lights out, but he makes a decision. "They won't miss me," he says. "I'll stay."

Jimmy smiles, clearly pleased, and leans on the railing. "Cool. I mean. Whatever, if you want."

Pete laughs, not fooled. "C'mon, it's freezing out here. Let's go inside."

Once again chilled by the wintery weather, they huddle together on the couch beneath the small blanket thrown over the back of it. The room is cozy and warm now, but they stay close until they start to thaw out, relaxing in a comfortable silence.

Pete doesn't regret skipping class, he finds, when he muses on the day's adventures. He loves spending time with Jimmy and getting the other boy all to himself for an entire day is nearly unprecedented. There's usually always someone coming to ask Jimmy for a favor or starting trouble or inviting him to join some activity or the other. Even today, there'd been Parker and Trent, and Jimmy had turned both of them down flat to hang out with him instead.

And then, a thought occurs to him. "Wait a minute. Was this a date?"

Jimmy shrugs that non-committal shrug of his again. "If you want it to be."

Pete flounders. "If I-" he starts, stops, "Did _you_ want it to be?"

"I mean, yeah," Jimmy answers, hasn't looked at him yet. "I thought you knew."

"This is going to come as a bit of a shock to you, but while I am really good at figuring out what other people are up to with each other, I'm kind of an idiot about picking up on things like that when they're directed at me," he tries to explain his general cluelessness. "Couple that with a refusal to believe that _anyone_ would want to date me anyway and you could have been holding a neon sign and I would have missed it."

Jimmy, who's never been shy, who's always brutally confident, answers smoothly. "I promise to be more direct next time I ask you out, then, because _I_ definitely want to date you."

"Oh," Pete stares in something like awe. "Really?"

In answer, Jimmy grabs a fistful of his sweater and pulls him closer, presses his lips to Pete's in a sound kiss that's better than Pete could have imagined. For a first kiss, it's stunning. "Really," he says.

Pete takes it upon himself to steal a second kiss, just to be sure, and wishes they'd done this sooner. Still, they have all night – all weekend, really, so long as no one at Bullworth realizes they're not where they're supposed to be and raises a fuss about it. Hell, they could stay here in the lighthouse all of winter break, if they wanted – to enjoy this.

Together.


End file.
